Mauritania

The Carter Center helped Mauritania mobilize its resources to wipe out Guinea worm disease, an ancient waterborne parasitic infection.

Impact

Reduced the number of endemic regions from five to three in just one year
Supported health workers to reach the remote areas to provide training and report cases
Saw the last indigenous case of Guinea worm disease reported in 2004

Legacy

Guinea Worm

Current Status: Transmission stopped, June 2004
Certification of Dracunculiasis Elimination: 2009

Our Work and Methods

Because there is no cure or vaccine for Guinea worm disease, the Center’s strategy is to work with ministries of health to stop transmission by providing health education and helping to maintain political will.

To cross the deserts and reach isolated and remote areas, health workers rode camels, horses, and donkeys to implement their monthly training and case-reporting activities.

In 1996, the government of Japan agreed to partner with the Center to provide 200 wells in endemic areas of Mauritania.

Impacts

When Mauritania established a national Guinea Worm Eradication Program in 1995, five regions were endemic, with 122 villages reporting a total of 1,240 cases. By the following year, only three regions remained endemic.
Mauritania reported its last indigenous case in June 2004 and was certified in 2009 by the WHO as having eliminated the disease.